San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-05-02

"A. u al
settle with me-"
~Ah, Jomr said she, placing her
hands in his. "Ilaye you not often said
that you loved me for my sincerity and
truthfulnaSsy'
He had. lie pressed her hands and
WAS about to embrace her, begging for
giyeness, when the demon duubt rose
again.
lie said you had his ring
1T Is fdlse-false as the rest. The
ring you are new pressing is my own
the ring you placed there"
DiSengagimg her hand, she drew off
the ring, saying, Examine it; strike a
light and assure yourself"
Nonsense, Mary" said he. Il believe
YOU absolutely"
but beg Of you"
He struck u light. "Yes, it is the
same. Hello no. Yours is pearl; this
is an amethyst"
Your eyes are at fault. The ini-
tials-"
"Lc, us goo, NJ. A.-no, A. p.
Inas'
Dean n.t,r , her dazed expression
and IL syn .i..DOd it. The light and
his hop .s - p. tut together.
This #u ar y, this mendacity. stuns
me-" h INIT. e, d.
Thrn tllH%r: the ring out into the
darNn ~. It e.. d in his grief:
"Gr GW, md this is the only wo-
man rr !r u"
She jr.,d 10 brow her arms about
him, La ia l.Ished her aside-not
brutal? fol lie vas maryland vanish
&C..
She sank iI.o chair. The stars
seemed to be chasing each other and
the earth to be rolling beneath her.
Then she knew nothing. As she
came TO herself, after long time, she
spoke John Deans name. But there
was no answer. The silence startled
her and she remembered all.
"Yes, yes; he went away from me-"
she said, But why does he not come
backp He knows that | cannot lie"
When single pedestrian approached
and ears until he had gone by. Finding
suspense unbearable she resolved to
find John Dean. He must be cooler now,
and would listen to reason.
But they told her at the hotel that he
had left an hour ago. He had been call,
ed suddenly to New York.
WAS there a note or message for any
one?"
NO"
She turned away. This was harder
than all. She went to the pier. But it
was lively with prOmenaders waiting
for the mOOnrise and she wanted SOli-
tude. Then she descended to the sands.
There, too, were merry groups whom
she thought she hated for their laugh
ter, and whispering lovers, whom she
envied. She turned her face southwark.
At any other time the shale and dry
sand would have wearied her. Now it
was relief. She wanted something to
contend against. She continued walk
ing until the lights of the pier were far
away.
At last she was alone and needed not
fear the sound of her own voice. Every
thing favored her desolatiOn. The sky
was overcast, and the swell broke deli
antly at her feet, forcing her back, for
her were the sand cliffs, beneath whose
insecure and beetling tops she sat down
without fear. She had no clear reCOl-
lection of her journey. The only thing
she realized was that John Dean had
gone.
lie has gone!" she repeated pathetic
ally.
She buried her face in her hands.
After a while she felt light all about
her, and lifted her head. From be-
tween two clouds the moon shOne upon
her like sweet look of pity. 1t diSap-
peared Immediately; yet some mysteTi-
Gus influence had opened her heart and
she fell to weeping most bitterly. Then
her mind grew clear and she recOlleCted
their first meeting, and the happy days
they had spent together. His qualities.
too, they seemed greater and nObler now
that he was lost to her. When we be-
little those whom we love it is sign
that we always loved ourselves and not
them. Her thoughts took despairing
shape. What matter now that truth
and conscience were on her side? The
evidence was against her, and John
Dean had gOEel
Again she felt the shock, followed as
before by a partial trance, which pre-
vented her from deciding, upon any
course of action. She closed her eyes
with sleep. ID seemed to her that the
wind was wailing about her ears, and
that the waves, grown sympathetic,
were sObbing all along the shore. When
she rose al list, chilly and trembling,
thick fog was creeping towards The
land, and the tide was receding.
She walked again towards the sleep
ing town, wringing her hands and ex-
claiming, $50 my hopes are going out
and my troubles are coming in"
Next morning at breakfast Miss Gard
ner remarked: what an eccentric girl
that Miss AlthOrpe is. She went off to
New York this morning without saying
good bye to anybody"
In the business circles of San Fran
cisco, at any time during 1873, it was
common to hear men speak of John
Dean as the future leader of the Cali
fornia bar. If he would only develop
some popular qualities, they said-if,
for example, he were more like his only
professional rival, the gallant Colonel
Manyletters, whose history would some
day be read like charming story of the
Arabian Nights, and whose phenOmen-
al success had been won not more by
his knowledge of Law than by his mag
netlSm and VerSatility-he could choose
which he liked of the public prizes Of
the state, and they would be given to
him.
Unfortunately for all this, John Dean
was recluse. There was some mystery
about the young man. Arriving five
years before, he had rested for one week
at the Occidental and then suddenly
disappeared. Under false name he
had gone to some mine, timber camp or
ranch, no one knew which. But this
was known, that at the end of six
months he had returned to the city as
John Dean bringing with him q brown